We didn’t have to wait for the new government in Italy to be sworn in! As soon as the two chambers of Parliament took office, the Draft Law AC 63 of the Italian Chamber of Deputies was officially registered. Its title is “Measures to halt soil consumption and to reuse urbanized Soils”. The text is almost identical to that of the SIP Forum’s Draft Law published at the end of January!
When we spoke to representatives of the 5 Star Movement, as we did to other parties before the elections on 5 March 2018, they showed interest in and support for our proposal. And they followed this up as soon as the Italian Parliament started sitting by adopting the text and presenting it officially on 23 March as a Draft Law in the Chamber of Deputies, stressing that the 5 Star Movement “… is very pleased to accept the initiative of the voluntary sector by putting its name to the draft law put forward by Salviamo il paesaggio”. Then comes our text, with some minor changes that are completely in keeping with the spirit of the original text, bringing it to the immediate attention of all the political parties.
There are two reasons to be delighted by this initiative: 1) it obliges the entire political class to deal with the question of the soil in a new context that has been created directly by civil society; 2) it reduces the timescale for presenting a draft law by removing the need to collect signatures in order to put forward a popular initiative proposal.
So the first step has been taken. But let’s not kid ourselves: the road to approval is long and hard, and will take a long time. Our efforts to communicate both in Italy and in Europe must not only be maintained but also renewed, so that public attention for the question of the soil does not flag and so that the proposal can be brought to fruition without being emptied of its essential content. We will be keeping an eye on the draft law’s legislative progress and providing regular updates.
Gruppo Suolo Europa 